American Research Center in Egypt

November Meeting

Saturday, November 1, 2014

"Seth, the Evil God of Power and Might"

Gene Cruz-Uribe, Professor of History, Indiana University East

We often see the ancient Egyptian god Seth as the god of evil in ancient Egyptian religion because he had killed his brother Osiris in order to claim the kingship of Egypt.  This lecture will try to rehabilitate Seth’s stature taking into account numerous new studies on the many roles that Seth held throughout Egyptian history.  Oftentimes Seth held the position as king of the gods and the years of his reign as king were enumerated. During the New Kingdom Period, he served in a honored position as the protector of the sun god Re at the prow of the solar bark, as a chief deity of the Nineteenth Dynasty kings, but also having some negative aspects portrayed.  The Late period portrayal of Seth as a god of evil generated multiple tales of the “evil” god Seth and passed into Greek literature. In his slide-illustrated lecture, Dr. Cruz-Uribe will review some new and unpublished scenes of the god Seth from his own fieldwork in Egypt.
 
Eugene Cruz-Uribe was born and raised in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He received his BA, MA and PhD in Egyptology from the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. Cruz-Uribe worked as a lecturer at the Field Museum in Chicago and as a curator at the Seattle Art Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art during the Treasures of Tutankhamun exhibit during the late 1970s. He has been a professor Egyptology at Brown University, Northern Arizona University, California State University at Monterey Bay, and currently he is Professor of History at Indiana University East. He is a specialist in demotic texts and graffiti. Cruz-Uribe is the author of 6 books and dozens of articles and book reviews dealing with all periods of Egyptian history and culture with an emphasis on the history and religion of the Late Period. He has conducted field research projects in Kharga Oasis, the Valley of the Kings, and Aswan, among other sites. He is the editor of the Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt.

Gene Cruz-Uribe